All Over Albany

Summer, man. It's fleeting. It is hard to believe that already, here we are in mid-July. I recently had a conversation with my dad about how time just speeds up as you age, and I feel that phenomenon is finally happening to me this summer. I'm nostalgic for summer before it has ended.

In my house, summer begins on the last day of school. We write out a "summer to-do" list posted to the refrigerator and get busy enjoying the warmest season. Top of the list: Eat ice cream sandwiches.

There's no such thing as too many ice cream sandwiches, especially when they are homemade like those from Different Blend Bakery in Guilderland. And they also happen to be gluten free.

When I see a foodstuff I love offered as a gluten-free option, I tend to shy away from tasting it. There tends to be a grittiness in these sorts of baked goods that can completely alter the experience. Instead of chewy, moist, and soft cookies, the texture is akin to wet sand formed into a patty. Instead of a crisp, airy cookie, a gluten-free version sometimes tastes like brittle chalk.

But old-fashioned ice cream is gluten-free naturally, so venturing into GF category there didn't make me nervous. How bad could it really be if the cookie was garbage? At least there is a big disc of homemade ice cream in the middle.

All worries were assuaged with one bite of the ice cream sandwich from Different Blend. The cookie -- chocolate chip in one instance, snickerdoodle in another -- was indistinguishable from its gluten-heavy sibling. The chocolate chip cookie was paired with cocoa-infused chocolate ice cream, while snickerdoodle, rich with tastes of cinnamon and a sugary sprinkle pre-baking, sandwiched custardy vanilla ice cream.

My kids were quick to dig in, filthy from an afternoon romp on the playground and desperate for sweet succor. (Say it with me: Let them be dirty!) While I enjoyed the warmth offered from the snickerdoodle cookie, chocolate chip with chocolate ice cream -- a GF chipwich! -- was the clear favorite among the elementary school crowd. Most of it was for the flavor, but part of the joy was trying to unhinge their jaws to fit the thick puck of an ice cream sandwich into their mouths. (Trick -- employ tiny nibbles along the perimeter to prevent mouth fatigue.)

At $3.75 per sandwich for a from-scratch, housemade product for special diets, it's hard to find a better taste of summer. Different Blend Bakery plays with new flavors, too, like the vanilla caramel sandwich, peanut butter s'mores ice cream sandwich (made with homemade GF graham crackers), and chocolate chip cookie dough version.

Comments

I am gluten free (celiac) and I LOVE this place. The cream puffs are heavenly, the ice cream sandwiches are definitely the best GF ones I have ever had, and I agree the prices are tremendously fair. I got a package of frozen pastry puff shells that my guests said were absolutely indistinguishable from glutenous ones. Now that is impressive!

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